


Acolyte

by bluemoonwings



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 09:39:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemoonwings/pseuds/bluemoonwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenes and snapshots of how Jenny's training and education progressed over the years mentioned in my longfic Beauties and Beasts</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congratulations, Dr CW!

 

“You sure this isn’t magic, Ma’am?” Jenny Flint was feeling extra skeptical today, and with good reason, for Vastra was showing her a mysterious device she called a “computer.”

“I am superlatively certain, Miss Flint,” Madame Vasta assured her for probably the fifth time that afternoon, setting her at the table before the spherical unit, which she had instructed Jenny to touch with both hands. This wasn’t the first time they had used it. Vastra had been introducing Jenny to it for a few weeks now for educational purposes. It was rudimentary by Silurian standards, but beyond what Vastra knew humans would ever develop in the next hundred years or more. They had achieved a great deal of success, given Jenny’s eagerness to learn, but her appreciation for the subtler features of the interface left something to be desired.

“This thing reads my mind,” Jenny pointed out, gingerly placing her hands upon it, “and then it shows me things… In my mind. I’m honestly quite frightened. What if I looked up a recipe for a more passable quiche and it showed me nuclear proliferation? Good Lord what is it that I even just said? I don’t even know what half those words mean! Madame please don’t make me use this. I’m so scared…”

“Honestly Jenny, this computer is only very lightly telepathic. You should see the ones that steer our spacecrafts.” Vastra sighed. “It isn’t demonic. It’s not magic at all, but it does have predictive protocols so when you think into it, it tries to supply you with the most relevant information. In this case, you wanted two examples—one mundane but something you might likely search for, and the other extravagant and hyperbolic in nature. Worry not! It was attempting to be helpful.”

“Trying? As in having a will of its own?” Jenny tried to take her hands off of the sphere but Vastra clapped her hands over her own, bordering her on both sides with her strong arms, and enveloping Jenny from behind in a strange kind of embrace that made her cheeks flame red for some unknown reason.

“Not at all, Miss Flint. In the same way that one does not fault a guillotine for falling downward and cutting something-”

Jenny gulped.

“A computer simply does what it has been made to do, and any interpretation it provides is strictly relational coding. Input and output, you see—“

“Embarrassment, nervousness, arousal, anxiety all seem likely causes,” The computer said in its own disembodied voice, causing Jenny to let out a yelp, “antecedents appear to be proximity to Vastra, due to fear, physical attraction, body odor—“

Now Vastra, still gripping Jenny’s hands, ripped away from the computer as though she had been burned. “By the Goddess will you stop thinking strange things into the computer? It isn’t a toy.”

“I didn’t!” Jenny protested. Vastra cleared her throat and moved on, ignoring the warmth from her fingertip where she had also touched the interface. The computer had certainly been reacting to Jenny’s lines of questioning but had it only been taking biometric data from her or had it sampled Vastra herself? If Vastra could have blushed she would have, but was grateful that Jenny did not seem to notice her even greener hue. She hoped even more that Jenny wasn’t breathless because of any…body odor. She was starting to molt after all, but she didn’t think Jenny was sensitive enough to detect it. She frowned and moved from where she had stood, to Jenny’s side instead, suddenly slightly self conscious.

“Miss Flint, your embarrassing lack of aptitude for languages betrays a full spectrum of inferiority. I brought this up to make things easier for you. Your reading skill and speed are both progressing nicely but if you are to learn all that I demand, at this rate, we will run out of trees by which to furnish printed books and you will be 100 years old. You might have surmised which of those issues I am more concerned about, and how that might differ from your priorities." Vastra paused and touched the interface to bring up the curriculum items she wanted Jenny to use. "Now, I will run a few language programs which you will review daily as part of your non-martial education. You must learn at least a modicum of High Silurian, but it would be remiss of me to not encourage human tongues as well.” She gestured for Jenny to reconnect with the interface. The girl blanched, and Vastra sighed and gave her a serious look. “French would be useful, I imagine. Perhaps German?”

Jenny frowned even deeper, a furrow carving her forehead. “I never imagined I would speak French. That’s so…”

“Je suis nouveau—“ The computer began.

“Oh my God, stop!” Jenny pulled her hands away. “How on Earth is this not a demon entombed in a…clock?”

Vastra decided to start from the beginning. Jenny tended to be more secure when things were explained clearly. “It is hardly a watch, though perhaps the principles are not mutually exclusive. Have you ever seen the inside of a watch? Or a piece of machinery?”

Jenny nodded hesitantly. She had, though she had never personally learned the finer points of one’s construction.

“Each part of a watch works in a team with the other components, all interconnected, dependent upon one another in perpetual motion,” Vastra began. She sensed that Jenny had awareness of this, and gestured to the computer, from which Jenny was seated as far away as possible now. “A computer runs on code which is much the same thing, but in a code language that has been simplified from vocative Silurian. It condenses requests I might make in my language to a series of commands in the form of conditional statements, limiters, directions, etcetera.” Vastra produced a sharpened charcoal stylus from a hidden pocket and gestured for paper. There was none, so she took Jenny’s hand, turned it up, and began to lightly scribble. “ _Et voila.”_

“This looks like another language,” Jenny replied pondering over the scribbling over her hand. There were letters as well as numbers and brackets and all sorts of things, but even in the four lines Vastra had drawn, she immediately noticed a few patterns which she correctly assumed were the conditional statements. “If a then b, if b then c…” She pored over it longer than Vastra had thought she might. “It’s math, isn’t it, Ma’am?”

The Silurian’s brows shot up in surprise. “Quite right, Miss Flint, are you proficient in Math?”

“I think I am proficient in no things,” Jenny shrank back, not even sure exactly what proficient even meant, though if it was a good thing, it probably did not refer to her, especially at Madame Vastra’s standards.

Her mistress’s hand slammed down on the table before her with a boom, making Jenny leap in her chair and look up like a small animal. “Stop doing that!” Vastra shouted, looking quite upset.

“Stop what, Ma’am?” Jenny wondered.

“When you find something you’re good at, you immediately downplay it and retreat into a shell of mediocrity. I won’t tolerate it. It is below your station.” Vastra set her jaw and stared into Jenny, and before Jenny could open her mouth to reply, Vastra, having apparently read her mind, shot off again. “You’re doing it once more! I feel it, and I loathe it, Miss Flint. Nothing is above you anymore. If you were truly lacking in potential—in any way—I would not have brought you on. Bet on that! Now then, since I sense you have an aptitude for logical reasoning, allow me to explain.”

Jenny let everything sink in for a bit.

“If a light is off, what can you do with it?” Vastra asked.

“Turn it on,” Jenny replied immediately.

“And if you turn it on what can be done with the light?” Vastra challenged.

“Turn it off?” Jenny guessed, wondering why something so elementary was being discussed.

“And do you think a light turned on and off can be used for anything other than illumination?” Vastra asked, instantly seeing a different kind of light dawn in Jenny’s head.

“Of course. People can send coded messages that way!” Jenny began to think on this, reviewing the signals of torches she had once seen from a castle, or even the sounds of bells and drums and such.

“You see, it is oft thought that programming is binary. A zero for no or off, and a one for on or yes. The opposite value, basically. Consider what can be accomplished with a zero and one—a light on and light off. Now imagine what we could say with twenty-six letters and ten numbers, as with English?” Vastra could not help but smile as she watched the possibilities begin to occur to Jenny, who looked down at her hand.

“But Ma’am, why use a code when you can use your own language? This computer talks to me in English and to you in your language. Why do you have to speak to it in only this code?” She wondered.

“Words alone are so easily misinterpreted. In words alone, not accounting for tone and meter, there is falsehood. Misunderstanding. There is no room for error when we need a computer to keep us asleep, monitor our vitals, and wake us appropriately. The more sophisticated the computer we design, the more complex the code can be. You will in time learn much of this as well, though it is not my personal specialty.” Vastra gestured to the computer. “Continue learning from it, as you have been. It is a machine just as much as any that you have seen in your world. In time, your knowledge will grow beyond your imagining.”

Jenny still was not pleased exactly, but inspiration had taken root in her mind. She shared none of this with Vastra, as it would soon be time for the physical component of her training to begin for the day. She turned, grasped the interface in two hands, and let the program begin to run. “Yes, Ma’am.”

 


	2. Tongues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jenny gets a bit cheeky.
> 
> Set early in Apprentice (Beauties and Beasts), Jenny's education continues.

For the fourth time, Madame Vastra repeated the queer clicking/hissing noise that served as a secondary diphthong in the Silurian language. For the fourth time, Jenny Flint, a human maid, aged sixteen, attempted earnestly to replicate it and failed miserably. Her mistress and trainer tried to be supportive, but her furrowed brow told Jenny much of the real story. They were seated across from each other in the study with Vastra's large desk between them along with a few open books and papers upon which Vastra had scribbled bits of her native alphabet.

Jenny let out her breath in an unladylike gush of air. “Ma'am why is it so important for me to learn your impossible language anyway? I mean, you speak English probably better than I do myself, we have access to a—whatsitcalled-- universal translator?” She trailed off as Vastra's face grew visibly more stern.

“If ever I am rendered unable to translate for you, your ability to communicate with my people would go far in the way of currying favor,” Vastra sniffed, looking down her nose at her apprentice.

“Your people?” The idea of more Silurians in her life made Jenny feel strangely faint. “Are they...many?” she hoped she didn't look as green as she felt, though if she did, she prayed for a forked tongue to accompany it.

Vastra shrugged enigmatically. “They are nearly as numerous as your people I should say, but beyond this planet, I cannot say how our population has fared.”

_Beyond this planet_ , Jenny repeated the words in her mind and did not feel better. The whole idea of anything more than England was already a lot for her to wrap her mind around right now. “Am I like to meet any of your...clanmates?” she strained to remember what she had read about Silurian social stratification.

“Heavens no, they slumber beneath the Earth's crust in suspended animation. Don't be absurd.” Vastra waved her off and pointed to a complex pictogram. “Read this for me please, Jenny, I know you know it.”

“It is a greeting,” Jenny replied automatically, but at Vastra's frown, said with great frustration, “It's impossible for me to do that queer clicking and hissing you do. I'm not a lizard, Madame!”

“I could easily cleave that tongue of yours in two if you think it is the inhibiting factor here!” Vastra exclaimed slapping her hand onto the surface between them.

Jenny's eyes went wide and soundly shut her mouth with a vigorous shaking of her head. “ _Please no_ ,” she hissed then in fairly passable, if choppy, Silurian.

“I knew you had it in you, Jenny,” Vastra brightened. “Now look, I shall spare you the finer points of our syllabic script. Normally that might be easier but because you struggle so, pictograms from our older writing might serve as more immediately useful. Your memory does seem to be quite good.” She passed Jenny some papers. “I want you to practice this every day, and speaking aloud as well, do you understand?”

Dismayed, Jenny sighed. “Yes, Ma'am. May I be excused now?”

_Lazy apes_ , Vastra growled inside, “Yes, Jenny, off you go, but first bring me some tea, and remember, don't be lax with your studies. A developed mind is just as important as a developed body.”

Jenny rattled off a broken-English-Silurian affirmative that, despite its great imperfection, pleased Vastra inordinately. She did not want to seem too easy going on her student, however, so she simply called out as Jenny was leaving.

“Work on that phonology or I may snip your tongue anyway.”

Jenny paused and tipped her head in thought. The mask of demure submission slipped only long enough for Vastra to register a defiant glint in her eye that she quickly hid. “Unlikely, Ma'am. The language is based not solely on your forked tongue but on the vibration of your glottis and other throat parts. As I said, it's highly unlikely that I will ever master this language.”

Stunned, Vastra was actually speechless for a second and stared at her. _She's been reading, evidently_. “Well then, since my apprentice is so wise, I shall expect double reading comprehension exercises on the morrow. That isn't limited by your human physiology, is it?”

Jenny realized that she had overstepped, and instantly regretted it, but at the same time, felt a strange little surge of pride at having taken the unflappable detective off guard, if only for a moment. She curtsied low. “Madame, it shall be done,” she replied with great respect, careful not to push her luck, and left to get the tea started.

 

*******

It was like Greek, Jenny realized, not that she knew any Greek of course. Some of these symbols, however, were not unlike a few of the characters she had seen in religious art or used in advanced mathematics (which Vastra was also forcing her to peruse, much to her displeasure). She was, to her satisfaction, beginning to see some patterns here. With a little help from the computer, she could definitely see a bit of a relationship between the two Silurian forms of writing that Vastra was having her study, and early human language. It was fascinating, if terribly difficult.

_I don't even speak French_ , Jenny thought to herself. _If I had started with that, then at least I wouldn't be a total bumpkin. I'm just as likely to receive an exorcism as a greeting if I ever spoke_ this _language!_

And yet, it began to come together over the weeks. She had to roll her tongue at times to create the right sound, and mostly still failed, but at least it was understandable...about thirty percent of the time, which she reasoned with Vastra was thirty times better than zero percent of the time. This argument had granted her reprieve a few times and she was sure her luck was running out seeing as that Vastra knew several human languages fluently.

She must have looked particularly pathetic one evening after having been beaten about her person with a willow switch, that Vastra took pity on her as she treated her wounds. There was a huge welt up on her shoulder that was tender to the touch and the skin was abraded.

“Your languages came largely from ours,” Vastra informed her, bandaging two of her toes together on her left foot. She winced. “You'll feel better the day after tomorrow, I'm sure. Tomorrow, take your time healing these sprained toes, and work on language.”

Jenny cocked her head to one side. “You're giving me a day off?” she stammered.

Vastra looked at her as though she were daft (which seemed to be a default expression, unfortunately). “Was your bell rung more completely than I thought? I don't believe I stuttered in the slightest, Miss Flint.”

Jenny instantly visualized all the books she had been dying to work through, as well as a few special projects that required her attention. Language was her big puzzle and she was gaining appreciation for it, certainly, but her mind drifted back into mathematics and physics, which in themselves were their own puzzles and languages. It wasn't enough for Vastra that she learned this or that. Silurian, French, sciences, whatever. It was becoming apparent to Jenny that the voracious appetite for learning and building was contagious. As soon as she learned one thing, she wanted another, and another. They were connected, and like fire burning kindling, she felt somehow burdened with having to throw progressively larger and denser items onto it in order to satisfy her ravenous curiosity. It wasn't at all a negative feeling. The fire of life she saw in Vastra was mirrored in herself. Somehow this made her very proud.

“Miss Flint?”

Jenny shook her head and came back to herself, where Vastra was now examining her very worn out and blistered hands. “Ma'am?”

“I asked if there was something more you needed. You do seem to be taking very well to learning. You're nearly to the end of the units I have prepared and I know that you are consuming physical tomes as well.” The tone was affected disinterest, but Jenny could sense her teacher's hidden pride. She thought quickly, as Vastra was rarely in a generous mood.

“I was thinking I might enjoy learning from Paracelsus,” Jenny decided.

This did not seem to please Vastra, but her visage appeared more confused than disappointed. “There is no stellar cartography in the human body, Miss Flint, nor is Prophecy the boon of a mecurial divine monarch.”

Jenny chose her words carefully. “Forgive me for saying, but I work so often from a perspective that you provide me. My education is from your people. While more advanced, I believe there is still much that I can learn, philosphically, from my people. Let me explore the ways in which they view the world. Perhaps it says little of physical reality, but I just imagine it says much about _them_.”

Vastra considered this but gave no committed response either way. Jenny went off to bed that night wondering if she had angered or upset her master by insinuating shortcomings in Silurian thought. Yet, when she awoke the next morning, painful from the previous day's endeavors, she found upon her dresser, a faded leather book, upon which was embossed the title, _Prognostications._

 


End file.
